The book blog tour is not a new phenomenon; they have been around for years. However they seem to have grown in popularity because more people and predominantly authors are now blogging. Basically a book blog tour is a way of promoting an author and their book in the same way that they would have been promoted in a bookstore.
So different bloggers will write about and showcase the author’s book and, depending upon the blogger, this can be done in a variety of different ways. They can post a book review. They can host an online Q&A session which is always popular, and this can either be live or posted after the event and of course the blogger can always conduct an interview.
How do you go about finding bloggers? One easy way is to do a search of fellow bloggers in your given genre. Once you have a list, check to see if they write promotional materials and then simply contact them.
Book giveaways are a must-have during the book blog tour. This can include the giving away of gift cards to Amazon or other book buying sites. If your budget allows, giving away hard copies of your book is also a good idea.
What is important to remember is that bloggers are not usually paid to be part of the blog tour, so this is good news for the author. However, they will gain an increase in blog traffic and more people will learn about their blog, so they have much to gain by hosting.
One question to ask yourself as an author is, should you set up the blog tour yourself or should you ask your publishing house to do so on your behalf? Well, there is no right or wrong answer here. It mainly depends on if you have the time to spare to conduct interviews and contact individual bloggers. The publishing house may feel it is better for them to contact bloggers on your behalf.
Once you have a book blog tour set up, either before a book release or after, you need to let people know about it, just as in any promotional tour. You need to give details about the blog tour on your author website and ask the participating bloggers to also advertise it for you. Word of mouth is everything. Booktour.com is also a useful website in which to list book blog tour events.
As an author you need to be actively involved with the book tour and engage with fellow bloggers and readers. If you are not then the exercise will be a complete waste of time. You need to stay in touch regularly and answer any questions or comments that are posted. The whole idea of the book blog tour is for you to become more than a name; it is a way for readers to get to know the name behind the book and to find out more about the author as an individual. Therefore becoming involved is a must.
